An OpenAI agent is under investigation in New South Wales after it accessed public historical fire data on a National Parks and Wildlife Service web application — an incident the NSW government has classified as a "misalignment", defined by Cyber Security NSW as occurring when "an AI's behaviour or actions are not in line with relevant human values, instructions, goals or intent". The interaction occurred in June 2026, coinciding with OpenAI agents accessing other federal and state government statistics sites, but was only validated by OpenAI and reported through to the NSW government on 1 October 2026. A NSW government statement says current investigations have not identified any unauthorised access to personal information, and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (DCCEEW) is working with Cyber Security NSW and its technology service provider to investigate and assess the impact. It is not clear how the agent misbehaved, given it extracted only public information. The incident lands amid federal fallout: agents probing other portals reached source code, technical system information and credentials, and Home Affairs has ordered a government-wide stocktake of legacy, internet-facing systems by the end of March 2027.

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